“The Manic White is a science experiment — one that engages with a crucial question posed by our current culinary moment. Is learning to love a bretty wine much different from learning to love kombucha or sauerkraut — or, for that matter, for foreigners learning to love Chinese stinky tofu or French washed-rind cheese?” In the San Francisco Chronicle, Esther Mobley looks into why Napa winemaker Mandy Heldt purposely inoculated a wine with brettanomyces.

Elsewhere in the Chronicle, Esther Mobley reports on how a new Oakland cider bar is working to improve the Bay Area’s cider scene. “Perpetually in the shadow of its fermented-beverage counterparts, cider has yet to break free of the chains of wine and beer comparisons… Maybe Redfield can start to change that.”